Chapter 72: Momentary Thoughts Part 19 Part 1
Chapter 72: Momentary Thoughts Part 19 Part 1
First of all, I ready both “Upper Fang” and “Lower Fang”. After the Swamp Daggers and Empire Bee Swords they were my strongest weapons, my trump cards of sorts.
「The time is…… Now!」
From that moment, using the fact that the Gravekeeper would be locked in place after using the Dragon Fire Pillar, I run towards him while readying one of my daggers to strike.
「First one is this!」
「Maelstrom!」
「Hahaha! Sorry, but you’ll have to do a better job than that!」
I run right under the Gravekeeper’s armpit and slash at him with my dagger. I don’t have time to look back to see what was coming next, I’ll have to dodge it judging from the name of the skill alone.
「Thundercloud!」
「Thanks a lot for that!」
Right about now, it was the best possible outcome for me! As the thunderclouds start chasing after me, I run from them at full speed and ready another dagger to strike. For the time being, the first part of my plan was clear. I delve into my inventory in a hurry, taking out a reviving item and holding it at the ready. I also check my own skills.
(One hundred seconds still remaining, I can die four more times…… Hee, so it is an endurance battle after all, although of a different kind.)
For me, there was nothing more exciting than endurance battles, you see. There was something truly thrilling to see if the player would be able to outlive the boss in the midst of a fierce battle. It was also forcing my mind to work to its fullest potential all the time, which was surely bound to make me feel tired the next day.
Seiten Taisei refers to the period of thirty seconds in which the Gravekeeper could cast his skills freely, without having to wait for them to go off cooldown. But rather than skill or technique, I thought it was freaking overkill…… Any way, it seems that after using it a few times he was unable to use it again for a while, so I’d say I now have about a hundred seconds to act.
「You’d better prepare yourself, Gravekeeper Wezaemon……! Even if I’m going to go down, I’m taking you with me on to the other side!」
「Thundercloud!」
I avoid another thundercloud, dodge the insta-death attack and grip my fingers on the reviving bottle. Like that, thirty seconds have already passed. The Gravekeeper approached me with his huge sword at the ready.
「Come right at me……!」
「This is my ultimate…… “TENSEI!”」
No need to come out on top just yet, use this as a sort of a practice round…… There’s no need for me to be afraid of dying here. After making sure that everything was ready for my self-resuscitation, I threw myself at him with my bare hands. I tried to strike a hook at the sword, hoping that if it goes through my hand first it would cause me to die that much faster.
「Uwah! Respawn!」
「Seiten Taisei!」
「From now on I’ll have to do my very best…… Uwah, that was too close for comfort!」
Now, onto the next set! About ninety seconds left!
At the same time as the battle between Sanraku and Gravekeeper Wezaemon was slowly reaching its grand climax, so was the battle between Pencilgton and Katsu duo against “KIRIN”.
「Now, who would have thought that it would start shooting lasers at us when we break open its stomach?」
「Now look what you did! You had to make it mad, didn’t you!?」
After quite a while, the damage caused by Pencilgton finally broke through the “KIRIN’s” armor, exposing the contents of its stomach that were hidden underneath the armor.
Furthermore, it seems that the laser was the “KIRIN’s” trump card, as it started to deploy it almost everywhere and all the time right now, breaking free of the rope’s constraints and managing to get right back up. As they were doing their best to avoid the shooting lasers and incoming missiles, both Pencilgton and Katsu couldn’t shake off the feeling that they fucked up really bad.
「The only saving grace is that in this state it doesn’t seem to target anyone in particular, so we can at least dodge and prepare ourselves for what’s to come if we can maintain some safe distance from it. But we must also keep it away from Sanraku, or else things might really go to shit……」
「If that’s the case, we must shut this berserk armor down as soon as possible.」
「Yeah, you’re right. So, do you have anything specific in mind?」
Pencilgton was of the same opinion that they needed to take it down ASAP, but unlike Katsu he wasn’t all that sure if they would be able to do that. Looking from the broader perspective, as long as the Gravekeeper is taken down, it should be all good. However, giving up after they have come so far would be pure stupidity. Also, he really wanted to defeat this horse, just to show it who’s boss around here.
「What would you say if I was to say that I would like to take this thing down all by myself from now on?」
「I would call you a madman in my mind but wouldn’t tell you that out loud.」
It was a reasonable answer, not that far away from the reactions that he would normally get from the people if he was to tell them that he was going to do something as unreasonable as this. Their reasoning being: if he thinks he can do this on his own, then so can we!
「In the meantime, I think I might have a perfect task for you.」
「I’m all ears.」
「For the time being, I……」
All of the following explanations were rather complicated and involved all kinds of complicated and advanced stuff related to the game, but there were also things out there that might come to be useful in a moment or two. Therefore Katsu listened to Pencilgton’s convoluted explanation with a kind of difficult expression on his face, but he kept on nodding his head nonetheless. After all, it was the strategy conjured up by one of the best players of Ashura-kai.
「By the way, Katsu-kun? You have any rope left?」
「I do, but I almost burned all of them in that previous phase when this thing was rampaging so much. I knew it was a low durability item, but I was hoping it would hold on a tad bit longer……」
「Doesn’t matter, Just give me the most durable rope that you have left in your inventory.」